How Can Network Copilot Agentic AI Break Silos Between FortiGate and Splunk?
June 10, 2026
Network Copilot ™
TL;DR
With Network Copilot, NetOps and SecOps teams can move beyond log correlation by combining telemetry from FortiGate with information available in Splunk. It offers natural language responses, quick identification of the root cause, and explanations to help L1/L2 teams resolve problems faster with greater confidence.
Introduction
Modern network and security professionals are overwhelmed by telemetry data, but actionable insights remain fragmented due to their scattered presence in different systems. FortiGate generates critical data logs related to its firewall, policies, authentication, and threats. These pieces of information can then be gathered in Splunk for analysis. However, the major problem is that such manual correlation efforts need to be constantly undertaken. This blog post looks into Network Copilot as an operational agent-based AI assistant that helps with such correlations.
Why Do FortiGate and Splunk Still Need Intelligent Correlation?
FortiGate and Splunk are highly effective tools for their intended purposes; nevertheless, IT administrators often find themselves faced with problems when they are expected to manually correlate firewall events and logs and user-impacted incidents among different platforms. In most cases, FortiGate is responsible for implementing access controls, NATs, security policies, and protection against threats, while Splunk collects logs from different firewalls, applications, and other parts of the network. The problem lies not in the lack of information, but in the fact that operators need to process large volumes of data instantly. Network Copilot resolves this problem through real-time interrogation of Splunk.
How Does Network Copilot Help Teams Troubleshoot Faster?
NCP simplifies the troubleshooting process by acting as an expert network and security engineer that is able to review logs, configurations, and events on par with a computer. Rather than forcing L1/L2 personnel to navigate through dashboards, analyze logs, and raise issues for escalation every time, NCP allows them to ask such questions as, “Why is this user blocked?” and “What changes in configuration have occurred over the last 24 hours?” NCP can determine changes in configurations, authentication failures, blocked communications, policy-related problems, and other downstream consequences.
What Use Cases Show the Value of Network Copilot?
Value will be maximized when dealing with operational situations, where teams need an immediate response to data collected from firewalls and SIEMs without involving too much effort for a more detailed analysis process. As far as configuration change issues are concerned, NCP will be able to identify what has been modified, what kind of modification was made by whom, what firewall policy has been affected, and whether any changes have occurred in the way traffic has behaved. When there are problems with FortiGate Access, it is able to identify if there is an authentication problem; who tried to access the system and from what IP; and whether the cause lies in configuration or security policies.
Why Does This Matter for L1/L2 NetOps and SecOps Teams?
Through the Network Copilot, the operations staff can handle any problems more quickly since the Network Copilot will make the distributed data and the tacit knowledge understandable. For example, junior operations people often depend on senior engineers for tasks such as analyzing the firewalls, searching the SIEMs, and validating the causes of any problem. The Network Copilot makes the handling process easy and clear. However, the Network Copilot does not replace the tasks of engineers but helps them save time, down to minutes.
Conclusion
Agentic AI is already sufficiently developed to be used in networking as can be evidenced by Network Copilot. Through its use of telemetry data provided by FortiGate, logs created in Splunk, as well as data generated within the system, NCP helps companies bring together their operational environments and move towards more intelligent troubleshooting. In the context of evolving networks, agentic AI tools like NCP might help people move beyond correlations into proactive operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do FortiGate and Splunk still need something like Network Copilot to bridge them together?
FortiGate handles firewall policies, access controls, NAT, and threat protection. Splunk collects and stores the logs. Both tools are good at their jobs but the problem is manual correlation across them takes time and expertise most L1/L2 teams do not have on hand. Network Copilot queries Splunk in real time and correlates that data with FortiGate context so teams get answers without the back and forth.
How does Network Copilot change the troubleshooting experience for L1 and L2 teams?
Instead of navigating dashboards, digging through logs, and escalating every unfamiliar issue, teams just ask questions in plain language. Things like "why is this user blocked" or "what configuration changes happened in the last 24 hours" get answered directly. Network Copilot finds configuration changes, authentication failures, blocked traffic, and policy issues without the team having to piece it together themselves.
What can Network Copilot find when there is a configuration change issue in FortiGate?
NCP identifies what was modified, what kind of change it was, who made it, which firewall policy was affected, and whether traffic behaviour changed as a result. Teams get the full picture of a configuration change and its downstream consequences without having to cross-reference multiple logs or ask a senior engineer to dig in.
How does Network Copilot help when there are FortiGate access problems?
NCP checks whether the problem is an authentication failure, identifies who tried to access the system and from which IP, and determines whether the cause is a configuration issue or a security policy. Junior team members can work through FortiGate access problems that would normally need a senior engineer to investigate and resolve.
Does Network Copilot replace network and security engineers or just assist them?
Network Copilot does not replace engineers. It helps them save time, cutting investigation work that might take hours down to minutes. Junior team members stop being blocked waiting for senior engineers to analyse firewalls and search SIEMs. The knowledge and reasoning still comes from the system but the engineer stays in control of the decisions.
Why is manual correlation between firewall logs and SIEM data such a persistent problem for operations teams?
The information exists in both systems but it is scattered and the volume is massive. Operators have to process large amounts of data quickly and connect events across platforms with different data formats and contexts. That is time-consuming even for experienced engineers and nearly impossible to do consistently at scale during a live incident when speed matters most.
What kind of operational situations benefit most from Network Copilot working across FortiGate and Splunk?
Situations where teams need an immediate response from firewall and SIEM data without a lengthy analysis process. Configuration change investigations, FortiGate access problems, blocked user issues, and policy-related traffic changes are all cases where the team needs answers fast and the data is split across two platforms that do not naturally speak to each other.
How does agentic AI like Network Copilot move teams beyond simple log correlation toward proactive operations?
Log correlation tells you what already happened. Network Copilot reasons across the data to explain why it happened and what the downstream effects are. As teams get comfortable using NCP for reactive troubleshooting, the same capability can be directed at catching patterns and problems before they fully develop rather than only responding after something breaks.
Explore how Network Copilot can help your NetOps and SecOps teams correlate FortiGate and Splunk data, reduce MTTR, and simplify day-to-day troubleshooting.
